Three kinds of hand-dyed
"Hand-dyed" covers three methods that behave differently on the needles, and the hank usually tells you which.
Kettle-dyed semi-solids. The skein goes into a pot of one color and takes it unevenly, so the fabric is one hue with light and dark passages — a watercolor rather than a flat paint. Malabrigo's solids are the standard: Rios, Worsted, Arroyo and Verano in their single-color names. These knit up like a solid with life in it, and they go anywhere a solid would: cables, lace, colorwork, plain stockinette. The hank looks one color, mottled.
Hand-painted variegateds. Dye is applied along the stretched-out hank in sections, two to six colors, each a few inches to a couple of feet long. Araucania Huasco Sock Hand Painted and Huasco Coton, Juniper Moon Moonshine Fine Hand Paints, Artyarns' skeins, and Malabrigo's multicolor names (the ones with several hues in the hank) are these. The hank shows distinct patches of color, and the fabric is where the trouble and the fun both start.
Layered tonals. Dream in Color's Jilly and Classy, and Plymouth Yakima, are dyed in layers of close shades so the fabric reads as one deep color with depth in it. They behave like semi-solids and are the safest hand-dyed for a sweater.
Amano Riti and the gradient yarns are a fourth thing — color laid down in long planned runs — and the self-striping guide is theirs.
Why it pools
A hand-painted skein is a sequence of color lengths: eight inches of teal, ten of rust, six of cream, repeating every time round the hank. When you knit, each length becomes a run of stitches, and where that run lands in each row depends on how many stitches the row has. If a row uses up almost exactly one repeat of the sequence, the teal lands above the teal every row and the fabric grows a column — a pool. If it uses a little more or less, the column leans and you get a diagonal flash, or a zigzag. If the row count and the repeat have nothing in common, the colors scatter into speckles, which is what most people were hoping for.
The same yarn does all three in different projects. A sock, with sixty stitches around, often pools; the scarf in the same skein speckles; the shawl stripes for a while and then stops as the rows get longer. The self-striping guide explains the identical mechanism for planned stripes — it is one trick, used on purpose there and by accident here.
Pool
The row uses one repeat, so each color lands on itself.
Flash
A little longer or shorter, and the column leans.
Speckle
Nothing in common, so the colors scatter.
What to knit it in
Semi-solids and layered tonals: anything. Variegateds want a plain fabric that lets the color be the design — stockinette, garter, ribbing, a simple slipped-stitch or linen stitch — because cables and lace disappear under color changes and the color changes disappear under cables. Small projects suit them: a hat, a cowl, socks, mitts, where the piece is narrow enough for the colors to make short runs and done before a pool can establish itself. A big shawl in a bold variegated is a lot of looking at one yarn; a sweater is more than most knitters want.
Taming it
Alternate skeins. Knit two rows from skein A, two from skein B, carrying the other up the side (or alternating every round in the round). It breaks up pooling and it is also the only way to knit two hand-dyed skeins into one piece without a visible line where they meet — do it on every hand-dyed sweater, whatever the lots say. Change the stitch count. A pool depends on the row length matching the color repeat; a needle size up or down, or a few stitches more, changes it. If a sock pools, try the next size needle before ripping. Break the color up. Slip-stitch and linen-stitch patterns pull stitches from the row below and scramble the sequence. Add a solid. Stripe a variegated with a semi-solid in one of its colors, two rows and two rows, or hold the two together as a marl; the holding guide covers marls. A semi-solid from the same dyer in one of the hank's colors is the pairing that always works, which is why Malabrigo keeps the same names across Rios, Worsted and Arroyo.
Embracing it
Planned pooling is the opposite game: choosing a stitch count so that the colors stack on purpose into argyle-like columns or plaid. It needs a yarn with a very regular repeat — the commercial hand-paints such as Huasco Sock are more regular than a one-off hand-dyer's skein — a swatch, and a willingness to adjust the stitch count until the colors line up. A pooling cowl in a two-color variegated is the classic first project. And a single hand-painted skein that flashes in a sock is not a mistake; most people who knit socks in these yarns do so because the two socks come out different.
Dye lots and hand-dyed
A mill-dyed yarn carries a dye lot and two skeins from one lot match. A hand-dyed skein is dyed in small batches, often a few skeins at a time, and even within a lot two skeins can differ visibly; Araucania says so on the Huasco band, and Malabrigo's lots vary more than most. We match dye lots on every order as the dye lot guide explains, and for hand-dyed yarn that gets you most of the way; alternating skeins gets you the rest. Buy the whole project at once — a hand-dyed colorway restocked next season will not be the color it was — and buy one extra skein for a sweater.
Which of our lines do what
| Line | Style | Best in |
|---|---|---|
| Malabrigo Rios, Worsted, Arroyo, Verano, Rasta — single-color names | Kettle semi-solid | Anything, including cables and lace |
| Malabrigo — multicolor names | Hand-painted variegated | Hats, cowls, plain sweaters with skeins alternated |
| Dream in Color Jilly, Classy | Layered tonal | Shawls, sweaters, lace |
| Plymouth Yakima | Layered tonal, single-ply | Shawls, light sweaters |
| Araucania Huasco Sock Hand Painted | Bold variegated | Socks, mitts, planned pooling |
| Araucania Huasco Coton | Variegated, long runs | Summer shawls, tees |
| Juniper Moon Moonshine Fine Hand Paints | Variegated | Shawls, socks |
| Artyarns Merino Cloud, Cashmere 1, Ensemble Light, Silk Mohair Glitter | Hand-painted, mostly tonal | Shawls, cowls |
| Amano Riti | Long color runs | Stripes, as a gradient |
The photos on each colorway's page show the hank; if the colors sit in distinct patches, expect the variegated behavior above, and if the hank reads as one mottled color, expect a semi-solid. The hand-dyed shelf has all of them.
